Hi, welcome back to Contemplative Being.
What has Brian done to cause him to be suspended and
potentially fired as the anchor from one of TV’s most watch news shows? The answer
to this question is that he has become the news. The job of a news anchor is to
sit or at times stand in front of a camera and read what is on the
teleprompter. The question then becomes who writes the stories that the anchor
reads? The answer to this question likely depends on the size of the program.
If the program is somebody on a YouTube channel odds are they right their own
material but if it’s a large network TV program there are writers to do that
job. It seems unlikely that Brian Williams writes his own script but he
probably does have some say in it and he probably reads through it prior to
going on air although this we do not know for sure. I know whenever I have to
give a presentation I like rehearsing but then again I have to write my own
material so I already know what I am going to say.
For Brian it all unraveled on Friday, January 30, 2015 when
he misrepresented events that occurred 12 years ago when he and his NBC team were
embedded in Iraq. You might be wondering why Brian decided to talk about
something that happened over a decade ago and the reason was because he wanted
to thank a soldier, Command Sergeant Major Tim Terpak for protecting him and
his team. The two had kept in contact all this time and the Terpak was visiting
New York City after recently retiring from the army so Brian invited him to a
Rangers game. On the air Brian said that Command Sergeant Major Terpak
protected him and his team when the helicopter they were traveling in was
forced to land because it was hit by a rocket propelled grenade (RPG). At the
rangers game the stadium announcer took it further by saying that the helicopter
he was traveling in was forced to land after being crippled from a hit by a
RPG. The problem is that the helicopter they were traveling was not hit by the
RPG instead it was another helicopter in the convoy that was hit by the RPG.
The question is did Brian Williams lie or misremember? At
this point the inaccurate story has been told twice in the span of a couple
days albeit just once by Brian and the first telling was by the Rangers
announcer on the 29th. On Monday during Brian’s news program he apologized
for the error claiming that he misremembered the facts of the event that occurred
so long ago. On two separate occasions years ago Brian told the story but never
explicitly stated that his helicopter was the one that was hit.
So who messed up here and was it intentional? It was either
Brian or some NBC writer that provided the information to the Rangers and also
put it in Brian’s script for Friday’s show? If it was Brian it calls into
question his integrity as a newsman however, if it was a writer it casts doubt
on the integrity of the NBC Nightly News program. If it was Brian the solution
is easy suspend or fire him and put someone else in the anchor chair. If it was
a writer NBC could call him/her out or cancel the program. The Nightly News
program makes NBC millions of dollars so cancelling is unlikely. For the
network the easiest and most beneficial thing to do is let Brian take the fall
regardless of whether or not it is his fault.
.
The ethical question here is whether or not it is right for
an employer to let an employee take the fall for a mistake that may not have
been his fault? In my opinion the answer is no, an employer should support
their employees and stand up for them in cases such as this when the employee
has not done anything wrong intentionally. Unfortunately, money rules both in
corporate America and government so it is not is easy to figure out how
decisions are made. In my opinion Brian made an honest mistake and
misremembered the facts of the event. People have really bad memories of
stressful situations; add 12 years to the mix and stories always evolve. I
think that a writer supplies the Rangers with the announcement made at the game
and this likely influenced Brian’s memory so when reporting the story the next
day he failed to accurately remember the events that took place.
Every news outlet be it television, radio, print and online
has an agenda, this is no secret and hopefully everyone realizes it. You should
never believe what you read or hear from any single source. In order to get a
good picture of reality it is essential for people to get news from multiple
sources and create thoughts and opinions based on the collection of data. This
does not have anything to do with the story at hand but I think it’s important
so I wanted to share it.
Thanks for reading, stop back again next week!
Related Links
Brian Williams and the Smoking Gun That Isn't. (2015,
February 14). Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 15, 2015, from http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/brian-williams-and-the-smoking-gun-that-isnt-20150214?page=5
Stelter, B. (n.d.). What else has NBC News dug up on Brian
Williams? CNN Money. Retrieved February 15, 2015, from http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/12/media/brian-williams-investigation-questions/
Investigative Journalists and Digital Security. (n.d.). Pew
Research Center. Retrieved February 15, 2015, from http://www.journalism.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment